Transportation is an integral factor in international trade and the contract of carriage of goods by sea, forms part of the complex web of transactions witnessed at international trade. The purpose of this project is to illuminate the nature and the inherent features present in the contract of Carriage of Goods by Sea and to also highlight the rights as well as the duties owed by the parties. It also seeks to point the obligations the law imposes on the parties as well as the liabilities they would incur on the event of breach in this form of contract.

CHAPTER ONE

THE NATURE OF THE CONTRACT OF CARRIAGE OF GOODS BY SEA

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Man has always been by his nature an interactive and interdependent being, and trade has been one of those means by which he interacts and shows his interdependency. He engages in the exchange of goods and services for a valuable consideration.

The concept of international trade is not new to man, only that here, this form of exchange seems to resonate on a much broader platform involving a complex web of structures and processes which makes this sort of transaction possible and one of this structure is the carriage of goods by sea, thus it is important to point out that, this form of transportation of goods is not only vital to international trade, but it also forms an integral part of it, that the absence it would make international trade very difficult to undertake.

Though our focus is the rights and obligations of parties under the carriage of goods by sea, full appreciation of this rights and duties will not be attained, if some attention is not given to highlight the nature of this form of transaction.

1.2 DEFINITION

The contract of carriage of goods by sea can easily be seen as a contract involving two parties who for an agreed sum agree to be bound by the terms reached by them. But this definition may be very misleading, for though the contract of carriage involve this important element it is not the same as the usual contracts reached and agreed by parties.

Perhaps looking at some definitions posed by some authorities, more light would be shed on the nature of this kind of contract. Clive M. Schmitthoff tried to give a vivid description as to the nature of this contract, here he said that a contract of carriage entails a situation where an exporter concludes with a ship owner to carry goods in his ship from one port to another, usually overseas, such contract is known as the contract of carriage by sea. R.M. Goode on the other hand sees a contract of carriage involving two parties the shipper and the carrier. The shipper is the person to whom the carrier undertakes the duty of transporting the goods.

Black’s Law Dictionary defines it as an agreement for carriage of goods by water, which may employ a bill of lading, a charter party or both to ship goods.

Finally, Article 1 Carriage of Goods By Sea Act defines contract of carriage as those that:

“Apply only to contracts covered by a bill of lading or any similar document of title, in so far as such document relates to the carriage of goods by sea, including any bill of lading or any similar document as aforesaid issued under a pursuant to a charter party from the moment at which such bill of lading or similar document of title regulates the relations between a carrier and a holder of the same”.